Last week was even hotter than the summer of 1976, or at least that is what the Met Office keeps telling us. Is that really the case though?
It has certainly been extremely hot the last few days. We have been inundated with daily claims of new temperature records being set, forecasts that temperatures could even get close to 40°C (they did not) and the obligatory red heat warnings informing us we might die if we step outside our front doors.
But where is the evidence that this heatwave was even worse than in 1976? Most people who remember the 1970s would probably say the Met Office is gaslighting us.
In 1976, temperatures hit 35.9°C in Cheltenham on July 3rd. The Met Office reckons that this temperature was exceeded last week.
Top of the list is Santon Downham, which it says recorded 37.3°C on Friday, a new record for June. Santon Downham in Norfolk is, however, one of the most poorly sited weather stations in the country, even by the Met Office’s abysmal standards. It is a Class 5 site, the worst category, which the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says can add up to 5°C of artificial warming because of siting issues. In other words, the temperature at Santon Downham might have been as low as 32.3°C if it had been properly sited.
Class 5s mop up all the stations that don’t meet the criteria to be a Class 4, itself a
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Does anybody ever use this very logical reportage in the main stream media? God forbid someone might question the Met Office.
I think we are suffering from deliberate attempts by those in authority to promote an agenda that is not reflected by reality that will ultimately damage and diminish our economy and western democracy.
If we were still in the Cold War era one could credibly believe that external forces were conspiring against us.
It’s high time the Met Office was told to limit its effort to making the technically best records it can of WEATHER and making sensible-range forecasts. As it is we have a public body harnessed to a national political effort relating to climate and resorting to sensationalism to justify its continued existence. Leave this contentious stuff to journalists, academics, politicians, pressure groups and other pests of society.
The CEO of the Met Office worships at the altar of man – made climate change, so all their output is predicatble.
Since the clean air acts and removal of sulphur from diesel etc we have a clearer atmosphere which lets more sunlight in which will cause higher temperatures but this never gets mentioned.
The met office, the LAST place I would look for accurate information. After writing to them twice regarding chem trails we witness on a daily basis, and on both occasions, the met office denied there is such a thing. The met office is either gagged or for another reason unwilling to tell the truth.
i would recommend doing your own research, read or listen to Professor Willie Soon or Dane Whittington, Geoengineering Watch.com for an honest discussion of climate.
this Article on temperature loses credibility when it calls RNAS Yeovilton and RNAS Merryfield RAF. What little we have left of the Fleet Air Arm needs some respect. Disgruntled ex. Fleet Air Arm fighter pilots wife.
I was just wondering if the 2 to 5 degree error is due solely to the placement of the weather station or if the use of platinum resistance thermometers and the associated electronics contribute to the error. If the former then we would expect to see the same error with mercury in glass thermometers. The HadCET graph for maximum temperature shows a definite increase around the 1980s when PRT thermometers were introduced.
An excellent article, but a couple of misnomers: RAF Wattisham became Wattisham Flying Station when the Army took it over, and Yeovilton is a Royal Naval airfield – RNAS Yeovilton. Definitely not RAF!
Two hot summers in 50 years. Yeah, global warming for sure🤔🙄
There are major micro-climate effects in the Breckland region, where Santon Downham is situated. According to Grok, it “has a distinctive microclimate driven primarily by its geology, soils, topography, and inland position. This creates more “continental” conditions than typical for the UK—larger diurnal (day-night) temperature swings, frequent extremes, and relatively dry air—despite the overall oceanic climate of the British Isles.“
It would be good to know where exactly in the RAF bases the weather stations are situated. Is it possible that they are far enough away from the runway that the presence of the aircraft makes little difference to the temperature reading? Just playing Devil’s advocate.
I think the acres of concrete is key here, more than the aircraft. The heat put out by most helicopter engines is small compared to jets both civil and military.
(The infamous Coningsby ‘spike’ in 2022 was undoubtedly influenced by the 4 Typhoons).
Yes, we should know, especially as these are being touted as representative of our changing climate. However, the weather monitoring in airfields is to inform aircraft operators of the local conditions. If the detectors are too far away, they won’t be useful for that purpose.
The important place to measure the flight conditions is next to the runway. But that is not all, I work on Kenley aerodrome and the weather station there is infected by the close presence of the black tarmac perimeter road. Then there are the tarmac or concrete aprons. If the Met Office was not a bunch of global warming activists then it would exclude all flight related sites for assessing temperature records or recording trends. And for further information, I live 8 miles from Gatwick Airport and it surrounding commercial parks. One cold evening I went to the edge of the airport and was surprised, having left home in frost, to see the car reading 3C. Driving home I saw it steadily drop until at home it -1C. That’s UHI for you.
Excellent points.
Thanks, Paul, I was hoping for information on these hottest temperature sites. And there was no rain until September in 1976.
It seems Santon Downham is proud of its extreme weather.
DDG search assist tells me that the latitude and longitude of the Santon Downham weather station are 52.456611°N and 0.667891°E. If so, it looks like it’s surrounded by trees and bushes. However, I suspect its actually at 52.45919161559677, 0.671157263380099 (according to visual inspection using Google Maps).
Edit: BTW Santon Downham might want to update their Copyright notice – it still says: Copyright Santon Downham.org 2017-2025
Mercilessly reposting this- think you can buy these at the met office propaganda unit gift shop.
At last, people are waking up. Simply look up each day. When was the last time you saw a blue sky?, a yellow sin? Clouds that looked like clouds?
“this heatwave was even worse than in 1976?” Or conversely even better than, if you like a bit of sun.
This time it was cooler overnight, and no problem sleeping. By contrast in 1976, could not sleep so used to get up and sit on the balcony until 3 am.
The Great Stink of 1858 saw June temperatures stuck around the mid 30s for a few weeks.
Why are we not surprised….
”In fact, no pristine weather station beat the 1976 record of 35.9°C. The Met Office’s claims of record temperatures (last week) are wholly derived from junk sites.”
The leadership of the MET should be charged with Gross Malfeasance in Public Office.
They have absolutely zero excuse for their barefaced lying and obfuscation when challenged.
Are they not just obeying orders?
‘Honours’ await if they do. KCIII will be delighted to pin some medals on these grifters.
Probably.
No whistleblowers?
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